How To Deal With Anxiety At The Workplace
Anxiety is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry.
To feel anxious every now and then is perfectly normal, it becomes a disorder when it starts affecting how we feel and behave. Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, while severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life. When the symptoms you are experiencing begin to interfere with your ability to sleep or otherwise function.
According to a recent report by World Health Organization, almost 7.5% of Indians suffer from major or minor mental disorders that require expert intervention. Approximately 38 million people suffer from anxiety disorders which, 3% of the Indian population. Shockingly 22.5% employees of the workforce suffer from anxiety.
Having an anxiety disorder can have a major impact in the workplace. Turning down a promotion or other opportunity because it involves travel or public speaking, making excuses to get out of office parties, staff lunches, and other events or meetings with coworkers are common signs of it.
Anureet Sethi Founder Trijog - Know Your Mind, HOD (IEC) Podar Education Network. Clinical Psychologist & Mindfulness expert shares that, “Anxiety can take us over anywhere where we are stressed. Stress manifests itself through anxiousness - the feeling of uneasiness and restlessness. Employees may experience headaches, shortness of breath, palpitations, inability to rest and a feeling of loss of control."
She shared a few ways to deal with anxiety at the workplace :
People often experience a general state of worry or fear before confronting something challenging such as a test, examination, recital, or interview.
Generally speaking, anxiety occurs when a reaction is out of proportion with what might be normally expected in a situation. It affects how we feel and behave and can manifest real physical symptoms.
According to Dr KK Aggarwal Padma Shri Awardee - National President Indian Medical Association & President Heart Care Foundation of India, “Stress is the reaction of the body to the interpretation of a known situation. Stress occurs due to any change in the current situation. The answer, therefore, is to change the situation, or to change our interpretation of it or to make our body strong enough to bear the stress. Non-fulfillment of expectations or desire leads to anger which can be 'anger in' or 'anger out'. 'Anger out' leads to aggression and 'anger in' leads to the suppression of emotions. Chronic suppression of emotions leads to depression with attacks of overlaid anxiety.”
Dr. Aggarwal suggests:
• “Never suppress your emotions, neutralize them with the right action and not the convenient actions. Practice non-violent communication, make a habit of sharing materialistic gifts and think differently in any situation.
• During work, look at 20 ft. for 20 seconds after every 20 minutes of computer usage; stretch your back backwards every hour; do not indulge in excessive tea and coffee; do deep breathing exercises for a minute and learn progressive muscular relaxation shavasan exercise.
• Avoid passive smoking and indulgence in any type of addictions.
These tips should help you feel better and get back to work.
Most importantly do not perpetuate the thought of anxiety or the episode that should help you zoom out and see the bigger picture. When we step away and get a macro view of any situation, the fear factor begins to recede into the background and reality begins to emerge, which more often than not is far different from what we perceive it to be.
